Southern Thailand: Surat Thani to Satun

Day 1: 88km, climb 688m, Surat Thani - Ban Ta Khun (detour via Khao Sok)
Day 2: 54km, Ban Ta Khun - Khao Sok National Park
Day 3: 73km, climb 544, Khao Sok National Park - Khao Lak
Day 4: 63km, Khao Lak - Phang Nga
Day 5: 89km, Phang Nga - Krabi
Day 6: 15km, Krabi - Koh Lanta (Phra Ae Beach), ferry
Day 7: 86km, Koh Lanta - Leam Sai
Day 8: 63km, Leam Sai - Trang
Day 9: 150km, climb 520, Trang - Satun
(we did not actually do this in nine days as we had plenty of 'activity tourist' days in between)

The train spat us out in the roasting heat, surrounded by palm trees. After breaking out in a sweat from standing in the shade applying suncream we finally started our journey to the Khao Sok National Park.

We cycled to the dam with the intention of spending the night somewhere by the lake but when we got there we found all the accommodation was owned by the electricity company and was overpriced despite not being very nice. Meanwhile it had gotten too late to take a boat out to the bungalows on the lake, so we cycled back out of the National Park to the nearest town to spend the night.





























The next day we managed to sleep in the National Park at last (a different part), but only a little since the slightly crazy cousin of our guesthouse owner persuaded us to have a whisky party. The following day (afternoon) we spent cycling, walking and swimming in Khao Sok National Park, which is very beautiful. The friendly woman who owned the guesthouse took the first opportunity to put hats and aprons on us and made us pretend to be in a cooking class for a picture for her website, we only really understood what was going on afterwards, but it was fun anyway.

cycling through the bamboo forest

mmmm...

After two months without it, we finally hit the sea again. Khao Lak is a fairly touristy seaside resort town, but we enjoyed the seaside side of it very much.

stopping for a swim in another national park

red hot mosquito hunt

Phang Nga is mostly visited by tourists wanting to go on a boat trip to admire the karst islands, so that's what we did. One of the islands was made famous by its appearance in a James Bond movie. It was amusing watching other tourists striking Bong Girl poses for photos and assuming the most uncomfortable looking positions in order to get the best pictures.

bored guides sitting between the mangroves

James Bond island - option without tourists

option with tourists

baby crocodile?

Muslim fishing village on stilts

After that tiring day of sitting around in a boat we cycled on to Krabi for a night of splendid market food.

The next morning we got the ferry to Koh Lanta

where we enjoyed our two day mini beach holiday trying to even out our strange cycle tan

hang in there little frog

we discovered crispy pork and catchy thai karaoke tunes at Mr. Greens

Next we had planned to cycle to Trang, but that was not meant to be, as we bumped into a friendly chatty thai guy in his late fifties on a moped loaded with chicken and fish, who talked us into coming with him to be his first ever guests in his newly built bungalows. He suggested we stay for free and he would cook for us, no more convincing was needed. The place was beautiful on a deserted beach where no tourist had set foot on before. (we could tell that was true by the enthusiastic greetings and surprised looks of the locals along the newly built road). We even received thai cooking lessons as he turned out to be a chef who had studied tourism in Switzerland and travelled the whole world. (the secret of thai cooking, just like chinese, lao and vietnamese is MSG!).

It was a short days ride to Trang but the southern heat combined with the headwind was getting to us. Trang seemed to be stuck in the 70es, we stayed in a hotel that could have been the setting for a psycho thriller from that time and in the internet cafe they had white leather arm chairs.

This theme continued in Satun (the hotelroom even had exactly the same telephone as in Trang), but only after we made it there after 150km of relentless sunshine. The next day we hopped into the ferry and left Thailand.